Review: 42106 Stunt Show Truck & Bike
Posted by Skizz,
The Technic range is my favourite style of LEGO, and like Huw, it was a mobile crane that brought me out of my dark ages, although for me it was 8053 Mobile Crane. I guess it's the engineer in me that likes the mechanics of the Technic range.
42106 Stunt Show Truck and Bike is, given the price, a mid-range set so I'm not expecting a huge amount of dynamic elements but enough to provide an interesting build and lots of play potential. Will it live up to my expectations?
Box and Contents
The box shows the bike performing a leap over the car in a dynamic way, will the final model be capable of feats like this? The box contains four numbered bags and one un-numbered bag containing most of the tyres and the pull-back motor, instructions for one of the models, and a single sticker sheet. There are 21 stickers to apply!
The instructions for the second model can be downloaded from the LEGO website or by using the QR code on the front of the instructions.
Construction and Completed Model
Bag 1: A straightforward build and a good representation of a motor bike without using too many parts. The only aesthetic issues I have is that it's quite wide for its length and the drive train protrudes quite a way from the main body of the bike, but considering the size and the parts available it's a reasonable compromise, I certainly couldn't think of a better way of doing it. The wide wheels do make the bike stable when using the pull back motor, and it can travel a fair distance (and make my cats jump away as it approaches, not that it was used as a cat worrying device!*).
Bag 2: Another simple build, the model makes a trailer to carry the bike but also, with a turn of a gear on the side and lowering the tail gate, turns into a ramp. In ramp form, the bike can be launched from the top using the pull back motor and this is quite fun, although getting the bike to land on both wheels and stay upright is tricky. When in trailer mode, the bike is held steady by a small support that is easily removed. Although the bike is positioned well using the support it's not very stable and doesn't take much to make the bike fall off the stand.
Bag 3: There aren't many surprises in building the truck, everything comes together without difficulty. The steering mechanism is built here and is a simple rack and pinion affair and is controlled hand-of-god style on the cab roof which makes it easy to use whilst playing.
Bag 4: This bag mainly focusses on the bodywork and is where most of the stickers are applied. I did build all of this set without the stickers for comparison and some of the stickers do add interesting details to this model - the engine exhausts for example. The larger stickers help to reinforce the stunt-bike theme of the model quite well. The final car looks great from the front, an American style muscle pick up but the rear could have done with a bit more to it, the flat bed part has no floor and the rear wheels are visible!
The final part of the build is the hoop of fire and, yes, the bike can be sent up the ramp and through the hoop without hitting the truck, but the landing invariably lacks any kind of gracefulness to it, the bike usually ends up on its side. Also, there's no storage for the hoop when the truck and bike are in transport mode (bike on trailer) but this is a minor point.
The colour scheme without the stickers is mostly black with some red panels and coloured accents to brighten it up. The stickers do add a splash of colour to the model.
Alternative Model
The second model, unsurprisingly, follows the theme of the first, stunt displays, only this time it's a stunt car instead of a stunt bike. Straight-away you can tell that the vehicle is more stable than the bike, four wheels are less likely to topple over than two! The car is a fun looking muscle type car and is a sturdy construction with a good weight to it (useful for demolishing the wall).
The stickers are applied on the same pieces as the main model and they work just as well on this model as they did on the primary model. There's no steering on the car and the only technic specific part to the whole model is the motor. The only thing I'd change with this car are the rear wheels - I'd have used the wider wheels on the rear rather than the truck wheels, these ones look a bit narrow on the car.
The other parts to this model are a simple banner on poles, a ramp and a collapsible wall. The banner is purely decorative and adds to the overall look. The ramp is smaller than the ramp for the bike so the car doesn't jump as far or high but it wouldn't be difficult to make it bigger using your own pieces. Lastly, the wall can be demolished by the car into four pieces. The parts are held together loosely with axles rather than pins so should fall apart quite easily although I found the parts of the wall had to be given help to fall apart by having a gap between them (so the axle would only slot in part way rather than all the way in).
This second model did use about 75% of the parts for the set.
Overall
I think this is a good set that was fun to build, even the second model, and the addition of the motor did make it a lot of fun to play with. I think the RRP of £44.99 or $49.99 is a tad high but I found a couple of places online that were a bit cheaper and the price will, most likely, come down over time. Not a rush-out-and-get-it-now set but a good introduction to technic that's fun to play with.
And finally, to answer the opening question, the bike never looked quite as dynamic as the picture on the box, but it got close!
* No cats were harmed whilst reviewing this set!
48 likes
14 comments on this article
I like the style of the pickup's/truck's bodywork but there's room for improvements. The overall idea of the set seems to be fun if you're a kid, as a TFOL I wish the truck looked less messy
Cool review. Was doubtful the bike would have the power to clear the truck but great that it does
Thanks for the review. I really enjoyed making the set; I liked the variety which is greater than for a typical Technic set IMO. I like how sturdy the bike is: it takes a lot of abuse and never falls apart. And I did get the bike to jump through the ring of fire and clear the truck twice. (Many failed attempts, though :-) ). I like this set a lot! And when I was a kid, I would have loved playing with it.
My dogs would just chomp on the bike.
Even at 30 Euro this set would be overpriced. 400 something pieces of which about a quarter are pins or 1x1s which are worth next to nothing. 50 Euro is totally ridiculous for what you get here, which by the way has got to be one of the ugliest Technic sets of recent years. Easy pass.
Man, tough crowd. Not really my thing, but a sensible expansion of the successful pullback subline of Technic- two a year since 2013 means that there's an audience, so a third more expensive set is a reasonable enough bet for Lego.
And technic racers are just part of technic now, same as how City is the venue for arctic/jungle/exploration themes which used to have more separate branding. Doesn't matter too much if these fly under a city of technic flag, but I suppose this way we only get 2 regular racers, versus the 4 we'd probably get under Racers branding
Has there ever been a review on this site that wasn't positive? Maybe at least neutral? Not everything that LEGO produces is as high-quality as it is treated here.
This set has nothing to do with Technic, in my opinion.
It doesn't contain anything of what Technic sets should be about, besides the truck's steering. Even worse with the Alternative Model, which does not have any Technic functions at all.
@Pesti - Brickset reviews are always honest and there are various examples of poor sets receiving negative reviews. However, we also seek to treat products fairly, taking their potential target market into consideration when commenting upon their quality.
For example, this set evidently offers little to interest older Technic fans but does provide reasonable play value, as described in the review.
@Pesti said:
"Has there ever been a review on this site that wasn't positive? Maybe at least neutral? Not everything that LEGO produces is as high-quality as it is treated here."
Check out https://brickset.com/article/20575/review-75098-assault-on-hoth
Just one exmple of a negative review.
59.99 EUR... No thanks.
I gave a Trolls set a bit of a slating recently:
https://brickset.com/article/48241/review-41256-rainbow-caterbus
@Huw - Not the CATERBUS!!! You should have "buried" any other set but the caterbus!!! :-P Ahahahahaha!
On a serious note, we, readers, often forget about the real target group of some sets. When I see black flags and hoses and some other interesting small parts, a kid only sees fun (hopefully)
@blackdeathgr said:
"On a serious note, we, readers, often forget about the real target group of some sets. When I see black flags and hoses and some other interesting small parts, a kid only sees fun (hopefully)"
I actually do see the target group and their reactions both with our own children as well as their friends. This covers quite an array of boys and girls from about 5 to about 14. Plus I get the comments of my friends and colleagues about their kids when we talk about playing with bricks. And when it comes to products by LEGO in recent times, these reactions are overwhelmingly negative. Ranging from complaints about exorbitant price jumps, perceived lower quality of set designs, pieces as well as themes, many of which are not relevant to kids over here.
And note that I said "playing with bricks" and not "playing with LEGO" because at least over here in Germany I have noticed a gathering of momentum for alternatives in the last two or so years. It started about at the time when the LEGO versus Lepin case was big on national news. Before that I think most people over here had never even heard of any alternatives. But nowadays there's much more exposure for those, especially as retailers are beginning to stock them. And by that I don't mean the aforementioned illegal names but the many legal ones. Even Lidl, the second largest discounter giant over here behind Aldi, regularly offers sets by an alternative company that are both high quality pieces as well good enough designs at a fraction of the cost of LEGO products. Imagine how many millions of people over here shop regularly at Lidl. And now imagine families with kids seeing these sets and realizing that they can get good quality brick sets at about a third of the prices of the original. Think about it. This over time can ruin a brand in certain markets.
I think TLG did themselves a disservice by making their actions against Lepin so public, because by that they gave free advertisement/exposure for the very alternatives they wanted to avoid people from knowing about /considering.
By the way, as yet I have never seen alternatives for Playmobil of any kind. Interesting.